Crispy Duck Confit Croquettes with Truffle Aioli
Croquettes are what French thrift looks like when it dresses up. Take duck confit — already one of the great things to come out of a tin — fold it through creamy mash, crumb it, and fry until the outside crackles and the inside barely holds its shape. Put truffle aioli next to the plate. Count how long eighteen of them last. Our record is nine minutes.
Comtesse du Barry’s duck confit with Guérande salt does the hard part for you: duck legs slow-cooked in their own fat until the meat surrenders at the touch of a fork. And the dip is not a garnish, it’s half the recipe — Margaret River truffle aioli was made for exactly this kind of hot, golden, crunchy thing.
What you need
- 2 Comtesse du Barry duck confit legs, skin and bones removed, meat shredded
- 400 g floury potatoes, peeled
- 2 tbsp finely chopped chives
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- Freshly cracked black pepper
- 50 g plain flour
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 120 g panko breadcrumbs
- Neutral oil, for shallow frying
- 1 jar truffle aioli, to serve
Method
- Boil the potatoes until tender, drain well and mash without any butter or milk — you want the mash dry so the croquettes hold. Cool slightly.
- Fold through the shredded confit, chives, mustard and pepper. Taste before salting; the confit brings its own Guérande salt to the party.
- Chill the mixture for 30 minutes until firm, then roll into 18 short logs.
- Set up three bowls — flour, egg, panko — and coat each croquette in that order, pressing the crumbs on firmly.
- Shallow-fry in 2 cm of oil at 180 °C for 2–3 minutes, turning, until deep gold all over. Drain on paper towel.
- Serve hot, with the truffle aioli in an unreasonably small bowl so people have to hover near the kitchen.
Make-ahead intelligence for footy finals: crumb the croquettes the day before and keep them covered in the fridge, or freeze them flat and fry from frozen with an extra minute in the oil. And while the aioli jar is open, tomorrow’s dinner is already decided — our 15-minute truffle oil pasta is the natural encore. The rest of the truffle shelf is happy to help.
